Everton bidding big for a striker, plus 3 other links

Following years of financial mismanagement and struggles to increase revenue, things are looking up for Everton fans this year. New owners The Friedkin Group have cleared the worst of the club’s debt, and a new stadium opens this season with naming rights reportedly sold for 8 figures.

But the new owners haven’t had a ton of time to put a recruitment structure in place, and will be spending this summer scrambling to put a good team on the pitch, while hopefully avoiding the kind of costly mistakes that often come in this situation.

The Toffees currently have just 15 senior players under contract. Captain Séamus Coleman is expected to return, though he played just 5 times last season and is likely being phased into a coach or front office role. A handful of academy graduates have some professional experience and could make a step up this season, but probably shouldn’t be counted on for big minutes. As the boys discussed on the podcast yesterday, this is a team that needs to sign 6-7 new players before preseason starts.

Thankfully, they’ve been linked to a few recently, and I like some of the rumours that are popping up around Everton. First is Villarreal striker Thierno Barry, who’s currently playing for France at the UEFA Under-21 Championship. While his radar does not jump off the page at first glance, there are also no terrible red flags here. Decent shot volume and quality for a young striker on a good but not great team.

The shot map is what’s really encouraging. Barry is 6’5” and should add to the Set Piece FC aesthetic that David Moyes is trying to curate. He’s scored a bunch of headed goals, and he’s getting a lot of shots in great locations between the 6 and the penalty spot.

Everton might have to pay his full £34m release clause, and I wouldn’t mind that at all. He’s consistently scored at every level as he’s moved up from the Belgian 2nd division, to the top Swiss league, to La Liga. He’s clearly an elite physical talent with plenty of room left to develop. It’s the age, profile, and price that an Everton-like team should be making bets on.

Everton have also been linked to Ipswich winger Omari Hutchinson, who fits into a similar mold of age, price, and experience level. Hutchinson didn’t have great numbers with Ipswich last season, but no one did really. Previously, in the Championship, Hutchinson was an elite dribbler.

The other Everton rumours are considerably less sexy, but sensible for a team in their predicament. They’re negotiating to sign Kenny Tete on a free, and are considering paying the £9m release clause for Wilfried Ndidi. Both low risk moves for guys who have proven they can do a job at Premier League level. Given Everton’s current needs, they will have to settle for that in a couple places. But the xVibes are increasing at Everton, and fans should be happy if the Barry and Hutchinson deals come to fruition.

More news and transfer rumours

• Milos Kerkez to Liverpool is finally official, in case you were worried about that.

• Same for Miles Lewis-Skelly’s extension, a very important piece of business for Arsenal.

• Here’s a report out of Portugal claiming that Liverpool have entered the race for Viktor Gyökeres. Translation: His agent would like Arsenal and/or Man United to stop messing around and just make a bid.

• Napoli are reportedly close to signing PSV winger Noa Lang for €28m. They’re buying at the top of the market on some huge xG and xA overperformance. Lang had 11 non-penalty goals and 10 assists off 5.32 xG and 5.27 xA.

• Despite reporting in Spanish media that Alvaro Carreras to Real Madrid was virtually done before the Club World Cup, apparently they’ve never made a bid?

• Stop me if you’ve heard either side of this one before: Athletic Bilbao will not negotiate for Nico Williams and will only sell him if his release clause is paid all up front, in full. Barcelona are trying to nickel and dime them because they cannot afford this.

• Bryan Mbeumo to Man United is probably still on, for something like £60m plus incentives. In case you have missed previous commentary on this deal, our take is: Good player, will help United, also too expensive given their needs at CF and CM.

• AC Milan are closing in on a €25m deal to sign Samuele Ricci from Torino, which I don’t think affects the Ardon Jashiri rumour we covered earlier in the week. Ricci is much more of a true 6, midfield metronome type. I think he’s just OK; he’ll have to improve either his range of passing or defensive work to live up to that price tag and become a locked in starter for Milan.

• Speaking of both Jashiri and Man United, here’s a report linking the two. United are also looking into PSG youngster Warren Zaire-Emery, who is a bit of a weird player. I’ve thought he looked really technically gifted, but the stats do not match my eyeballs. It’ll be interesting to see if PSG think this is the top of his market, or if he’d benefit from another season of rotating in against weaker opponents.

—KM

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